Lament of 2006

I made this for a lecture on communication theory, postmodernist style. Surprised? You should not be. The image is inspired by the front cover of Uta Ranke-Heinemanns book Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. A fantastic book about the catholic church and its formed view on sexuality. Blimey, it's a very good book.

Now that's over with, let me tell you a frank account of this year. As every year before, turbulent. As few years containing ups and downs like you would never believe. Describing how it affected me is a process I have to use the entire year of 2007 to do. Maybe it did not affect me more than any given year, any given moment of my life - adding feathers upon feathers, gold on lead, horses on a green meadow eating drugs. Today, let me just sum it up in a very few words.

I am a serial murderer of sentiments.

When 2006 started, the woman I thought I loved had to be won back, no matter what. Veni vidi vici. Come August, another became emperor of my heart. Myself. My thoughts of what might have been. Her, the one I loved, hated, loved, hated, loved eternally. She had her birthday and my head exploded.

I got a cat. I got together with the secret thought, the may be the one. She was not. I hated myself, I said so. I am single.

May I be like a cardinal, a venial sin, a deathly trap, trapping my heart in corners, not giving me any chance, egoistic, just wanting to have power - winning without risking? Sacrificing what is me to fit into an image? Self sacrificing, egoistic love - is that love? No. I mean good, I love, I wish her to be happy.

I am me. Let me respect that.

I love you.

Self-help guide to fight sleeping disorders

USE A SLEEP DIARY. Knot down the time spent in bed and of that how much time you have spent awake, when you got into bed and the time you get out.

PART 1
1. No stimulants in the form of coffee, chocolate, tea, coke - avoid coffein after noon. It can take four weeks for this to have an effect.

2. avoid alcohol

3. no cat naps during the day

4. sleep the same amount every night

5. excercise for at least 40 minutes, get sweaty. No excercise less than four hours before bedtime

6. relax, don't stress your brain the last four hours before bedtime

7. take a very hot bath for at least 30 minutes and finish about 2 hours before bedtime

8. get up at the same time every day, seven days a week. This is really important

9. if you have to get up during night time, avoid light

10. get out in daylight as soon as you get up, within 30 minutes. As an alternative for those sleeping during daytime - get a daylight lamp and sit in front of it. This helps you sleep the following night(/day).

11. get rid of any clocks in the bedroom

12. No big meals the last 3 hours before sleeping

13. have a dark and quiet bedroom. Wear a mask if necessary.

14. sleep at 14-20 degrees. Avoid getting your body temperature high.

15. make yourself a bedtime ritual - brush your teeth, get into your nightgown, sit in a chair relaxing for 15 minutes before going to your bed

16. don't worry when in bed. If you struggle with your thoughts, sit down earlier in the evening, write down your worries and possible solutions if any.

17. do not stress about not getting to sleep. Paradoxial techniques can help - try to be as awake for as long as possible. Do not let this make you sacrifice #8.

PART 2 - control of stimuli
1. only go to bed when you are sleepy and only then

2. use your bed only for sleep and sex

3. if you don't get to sleep, get out of bed!

4. repeat number 3

5. get up at the same time every day, seven days a week

6. do not take a cat nap

PART 3 - deprivation
Week one for observation, week two you are only allowed to spend the time you actually slept in bed, but no less than five hours every night. Week three you calculate the efficiency: time slept/time spent in bed. If above 85% you are allowed to get to bed 20 minutes earlier, if not your schedule stays the same as week two. Oh yes, you are going to feel sleepy and grumpy for the first weeks.

PART 4 - cognitive therapy

PART 5 - relaxation techniques
This should be used always, no matter if you have a problem sleeping or not. Do yoga, get massage, alternative energy therapy, whatever. No stimulants that gives a false impression of drowsiness.

Mono having a dramatic outing

Mono Syllapus, now eleven, has had a dramatic evening out. Felis silvestris minimo (eleven weeks he is) met wildlife in the shape of a semi-tame vulpes vulpes, or the common red fox. Boy did Mono know how to climb!

I now think it is very wise of me to not let this little cat be out in the evenings on his own. At least not until he is a bit bigger. He is already mad, but sensible enough to jump the nearest pine when a big fox comes along. This fox is semi-tame as he was abandoned as a child and is a regular to my neighbour, which gives him a snack every now and then.

It was a real surprise seeing this fox, on the evening I first got to know of him. He came quietly and I didn't notice before Mono sat four metres up in a tree, staring wide eyed at this freak. The fox, now dubbed Even, was not afraid of me at all, but stood just a metre from me, drooling over my Sullapus. When I climbed the tree and got Mono on my shoulder, returning to the ground and abandoning the premises, Even followed us all the way to the door at home. Mono sat there, safe on the inside, staring curiously while I chatted with Even.

The next thing on the agenda will be training Even to be kind to Mono. They can be freiends and roam the woods to the advantage of both. Got to get a litter box for Even as well.

Zero

Zero emission of CO2, wouldn't that be good? No, not really. Ok then, how about trapping most of it? Sounds better. Even if it was possible to earn money on it? YES!

Conserving nature is not always a bad thing as they say. I will so much support the green movement when it gets its act together. Like Bellona. Chains, suits and papers. Great knowledge, innovative thinking.

This whole deal is about how even bishops here now are speaking of civil obedience to stop the plan of a gas power plant, due to the prospect of not all exhaust being rinsed for the first four years of it lifetime. Well enough, but consider this: no infrastructure of handling the CO2 exists, and will not be viable if not built in the right way. Sustainability, that is a good word.

The problem with CO2, apart from there being so much of it, is the cost of extraction, the challenge of final storage, and last but not the least: to get enough of it in one place. Why? Simply because CO2 is sucha valuable commodity. As our oil wells are meant to store massive amounts of CO2 (we're talking billions of tonnes), how do we put it there? And why?

We put it there from large scale extraction plants, running boats full of it to collection towers, we harness its soluble powers to vaning oil fields, shooting CO2 up our veins instead of valuable hydrocarbon gases, used to give us electricity in the same electricity plants. We run pollution free and filthy rich, help others with their CO2 troubles.

But it is a BIG project, so stop whining. Four years to get COMPLETELY pollution free electricity? You kidding me - you think that is terrible? The year 2014, quoted as that date, is not four years into the future, but eight. However, pilot projects have already started, and we might have pollution free power well ahead of 2014. And more oil and gas. We will also have some high tech, low consuming, low pollutant industries. It will make a great technological incentive towards the right direction.

There are other big challenges, but this is one solution getting away with a whole lot of trouble. Personal responsibility is what comes next. Burning sooting candles in front of the parliament makes no less pollution, that's for sure. Let us make this one for real, not another failure to see straight.

Edgar

Edgar the Elk has struck back at hunters. In Sweden, two elderly hunters have been found dead on two different locations. They were found relatively near each other and their hunters cabin. On the first man found, the police commented that he could not have shot himself.

My question is: Is there a killer moose going loose out there? Perhaps the albino running around on the border between Norway and Sweden? Is there any connection to the publicity surrounding the white moose and some wingnut ecologist? Or is it simply to very angry men gone Deliverance.

To check this out, a look on the map can place the killings on the eastern shore of Sweden, far from any Norwegian albino moose. It could be a local one, I'm sure. Hm, ok then. Maybe they were hunting eachother? Strange then that one was found a day before the other.

For more, see SVT.